Cold War-era anti-Chinese propaganda film featuring footage of revolutionary activities and combat, 1921-64.


This movie is part of the collection: Prelinger Archives

Producer: U.S. Navy
Sponsor: U.S. Navy
Audio/Visual: Sd, C
Keywords: Cold War; China; Communism

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: dlumenta - - October 26, 2007
Subject: More likely made in 1967.
Excellent footage of typical 1960s communisto-phobia.

It's more likely that this film was produced in 1967 (not 1964) - as it showed the ransacking of the Chinese embassy in Indonesia, which happened in early 1967.

Also note the late Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. The film clearly stated that he had been deposed of (which happened in 1966), so the film couldn't have been made in 1964.

Reviewer: orygunduk - - May 22, 2007
Subject: Dustbin of History
lbeyman, your condescending remark about people you don't know who don't agree with you are emblematic of the arrongance and ignorance of the far left. You know what you have read by those who share your view. I am certain you don't know firsthand anyone who had to live through the absolute horror of the great leap forward or the cultural revolution. If you did, you wouldn't be spewing your BS.

Reviewer: Gargantuas - - August 13, 2005
Subject: Well done, accurate
For it's time it is a well produced and accurate tale of the basics of Chinese communism and their goals for world domination. It is easy for some to laugh years later but the 20 million who died under the ruthless rule of Mao Tse Tung have no voice. Today China is changing, evolving into captialism and eventual liberty. Let us hope the world can learn that change comes from within not from an outside despot offering easy answers.

Reviewer: lbeyman - - July 11, 2004
Subject: Sick Capitalist Propaganda
This is a beauty of a propaganda film. It is so badly done that if someone has any knowledge of history it would be easily exposed. Sadly most people know no history except what is available in propaganda films. The facts are that in those areas where the Communists ruled economic conditions were much better then in the rest of China. In areas under Nationalist rule the people were starving. Why do you think millions were joining the communists?

In fact all over the third world, wherever the capitalists dominated and still dominate, people are suffering. If people were free to/allowed to
chose between helping themselves through various forms of socialism there is no doubt that capitalism would have been voted out of existence long ago.

Only through military force and stupid propaganda would/could capitalism exist.

Reviewer: ridetheory - - April 23, 2004
Subject: Fairly Straightforward
The title refers to the Chinese Communist Party's tactic of occupying rural areas first and moving toward urban targets. Therefore, the implication goes, their global strategy was to similarly target the third world, then move on to more developed countries. The argument sounds more plausable here than in many other, more emotional films of the era. You might expect it to veer off into some all-American, right-wing hysteria, but apart from a few references to Communism taking over the world (complete with the usual educational film cliche of the changing map), the bulk of this film sticks to the story of the revolution and its major players.

There is one other slight bias in the presentation; whoever did the voice-overs of Chairman Mao manages to make him sound like a fey, overly officious matre'd at a Chinese restaurant.

Reviewer: Spuzz - - April 21, 2004
Subject: My Heart Bleeds Red Like China
this clip fest bonanza is a historical film student's delight, pressing into archives to give us, while not exactly GREAT as a person, but GREAT in terms of archival interest, a history of Mao Tse-Tung and his rise to power in China. We see China pre-WWII it's problems with Japan, and then the growing escalation of Communism, and finally it's problems with the US. Worth the download to hear the Mao English imitation.

Reviewer: Elspetg - - February 1, 2004
Subject: cbp
good

Shotlist

"Red China's Battle Plan: It is a blueprint for revolution. Divide and encircle, conquer and incite." Film purports to lay out China's goal of domination. Sun Yat-sen is called the George Washington of China who led China in 1911 from its place a "backward nation, ruled by an autocratic system of emperors and kings." Illustration of George Washington shown in book with Chinese characters. Various unrest in the streets, unclear what it is about.

The young Mao is shown addressing the founding conference of the Communist party in 1921. Peasants in Communist caps are shown writing down the words of Mao and cleaning rifles in rural areas. 1934, the Long March. Chinese mountain ranges. The caves of Yenan. Women threshing grain by hand. Communist study classes outdoors. Soldiers in fields working nest to peasants. Peasants performing morality plays in the fields. Nationalist Chinese army. Japanese planes bomb Shanghai. Chiang kai-shek Scenes of devastation, injured and charred children and adults. Mao's face appears on front of a locomotive promoting him as a popular anti-Japanese patriot. The Red Army marching with every soldier carrying propaganda posters on his back. Some kind of official signing that marks the ending of the war with Japan in 1945.


Postwar, hungry people eating grass. Red Army training in close-quarter combat with armor-like protective gear. Nationalist army on horseback is harassed by Red Army guerillas. In the midst of battle Mao's troops use megaphones and electric amplification to call on the other side to desert and join them. Battle footage, showing much swarming of troops over countryside, mountains, railroads. Mao wooing of intellectuals. Mao reviewing tank lines. Erection of massive poster of Chiang kai-shek on Taiwan. Overhead view of thousands of Nationalist army troops on parade. Beijing, 1949, Mao declares the birth of People's Republic. Man is seen on trial for anti-communism. Battle which seems to take place somewhere in Korea. United Nations building and seal. Chinese army fighting on the side of North Korea against United Nations troops. July, 1953, Armistice is signed (I couldn't capture the name of the city); General William Harrison is shown signing for U.N.,(I couldn't get the name of the Chinese general). Scenes of revelry and celebration in amongst Chinese after armistice is signed. A narrator recounts Mao's statement at the time: "The United States is a paper tiger." Waving of Chinese flag by crowds as seen from a moving train.

Mao goes to Moscow, signing a 30-year treaty of friendship with Nikita Khruschev. Speech in front of the Supreme Soviet: Khruschev is seen supposedly attacking Stalin and saying that Soviet Union should have a policy of peaceful coexistence with the "free world." According to the film, "Red China attacks Khruschev and the Soviet Union as traitors to the basic doctrine of world revolution." Aboveground nuclear testing ban treaty is signed between U.S. and Soviet Union. Dean Rusk (U.S. Sec. of State) and Andrei Gromyko are pictured. Alexander Douglas Hume signs for the U.K. According to the film "Red China denounces Moscow's new line and sets out to become the leader of world communism." "Today Communist China seeks to spread its own brand of global revolution, Mao's emissaries are sent into the underdeveloped areas of the world"

Fidel Castro is shown greeting Chinese "technicians." Raoul Castro, Fidel's younger brother is shown being decorated by Chinese officials in China. Some sort of ampitheater in Albania is shown, with much flagwaving. Ghanian head of state Kwame Nkrumah is shown being visited by Chou en-Lai. Also meeting with Pakistani President (I can't get the name)XXX Khan?

Much recounting of Chinese communist slogans: e.g. Lin Piao's article Long Live the Victory of People's War."Victory for Communism will come through wars of national liberation."

Footage of Vietnam and presumably the Viet Cong. "In Vietnam, as in China, Communists seek to dominate the countryside until the dense thicket of Communism surrounds, entangles, and finally chokes the cities." What seems to be a booby trap made of bamboo spikes is shown being built by a woman, presumably Viet Cong. Also what are supposed to be civilian prisoners bound by chains are shown apparently dead and the narrator tells us the murder was at the hands of the Viet Cong. Many propagandistic parades are shown. Giant statue of Mao is carried along a street. Also quite a few brief shots of an older Mao in various settings.

Protests against Nkrumah in Ghana. In Indonesia, anti-communists riots and students storming the Chinese Embassy. The ridiculous statement is made that "Sukarno is no longer the absolute ruler of the island empire [Indonesia]." Fidel Castro is shown making an impassioned speech supposedly denouncing the Chinese brand of Communism.

Someone who looks like Lyndon Johnson seated behind a USA nameplate is shown with Asian world leaders at the Manila Summit Conference. American G.I.s are seen assisting Vietnamese peasants in a local construction project.



Dr. Sun Yat-sen
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